SILVER CITY — New Mexico State Police Search and Rescue and local law enforcement agencies helped create a happy ending Wednesday afternoon in Pinos Altos. Five Harrison Schmidt Elementary School students were found after being lost on a field trip hiking up Gomez Peak.

“We were first notified of the situation by Central Dispatch,” said Marc Levesque, Incident commander for the New Mexico State Police Search and Rescue team. “To my understanding the students were on a field trip hiking up Gomez Peak. Five students had been separated on the way down taking some wrong turns on the trail. Parents and teachers tried to look for them before dispatch was called.”

Levesque arrived on scene and quickly dispatched teams to begin the search which included members from the Silver City Police Department, Grant County Sheriff’s Office, New Mexico Game and Fish, and New Mexico State Police.

“A team found them pretty quickly,” Levesque said. “They were all OK. They were a bit damp because of the rain. But, once they were brought down, EMS checked them out and they were warmed up and evaluated.”

The team that found the children consisted of Lt. Freddie Portillo of the Silver City Police Department, Sgt. Ben Villegas of the Silver City Police Department and Lt. Fermin Lopez of the Grant County Sheriff’s Office.

“We broke up into teams and we were team one,” Portillo said. “We began walking in a southwest direction and stayed until we hit trail six. We decided to go west and while walking on a ridge we heard a sound which sounded like children screaming. We traveled toward the voices and found them.”

Villegas stated that he was the first on scene to see the children and that they were shaken up and a bit damp because it had been raining.

“We could hear some faint voices and I saw some light colored jackets when we began walking toward the voices,” Villegas said. “I made sure that no other kids were involved and it was good that they all stayed together. My main concern was getting them off the hill because it had been raining all day. But, the kids were happy to be found.”

Portillo stated that he took it personal because he has children of his own and the situation hit home for him.

“It felt good to have the children found and safe,” Portillo said. “I took this situation personal because I have children of my own. I felt it very rewarding to be out there and the ones finding them. My main concern was to find them before it got dark, because it had been raining.”

Silver City Police Chief Ed Reynolds stated that the cooperation between all the agencies was what helped this situation get resolved quickly.

“It was a great cooperative effort by all the agencies,” Reynolds said. “The parents were out helping and everyone coordinated very well. It could have been different, but once we got called out and got handed our assignments, we got the direction and found them fairly quickly.”

According to Lopez of the Grant County Sheriff's Office, about 13 deputies were dispatched to the scene.

"They all appeared to be uninjured, however they were checked out by EMS," Lopez said. "The students were reunited with their very grateful parents. I want to thank all the agencies that assisted in the search. I also want to thank the parents for being very patient with law enforcement during this entire incident."

There were also parents and family members that assisted in the search for the missing students and Lopez stated that it's not common practice to do so because of the obvious safety concerns.

"We understood that they are parents and we would do the same if it were our own kids out there," Lopez said. "In this case, there were parents and friends that did play a crucial role in finding the lost students, so we are thanking everyone that participated."